War zone tourism: Afghans on the FOB; shopping at the mall

Hey out there, Avery here, with some more interesting photos from our ongoing Afghanistan tour:

Afghans work all over FOB Lightning (i.e., the Forward Operating Base where we're staying), although their way of doing things is somewhat different than what we're used to. The other day we looked up and saw this construction worker dangling from a crane:

Turns out he was swinging over to help place a concrete barrier in front of some of the B-Huts, with help from some soldiers and a fellow countrymen who wore only sandals (OSHA would have a fit but hey, this isn't America):

There are a lot of Afghans here (which isn't too surprising since we're in Afghanistan of course). They work all over the FOB on construction and maintenance, among other things. Since this FOB doesn't have government-run shopping facilities, the Afghans fill in the gaps by selling all kinds of things to soldiers -- usually from stores they make themselves out of shipping containers (generally called "Con-ex" containers here, although I'm not sure of the correct spelling):

While we have some basic shops on Lightning, the really big "mall" favored by Soldiers is located just a short MRAP ride away on FOB Gardez. It's a little strange at first, yet who can resist the Afghan versions of Walmart, Best Buy, and K-Mart -- you can even stop to get a cup of coffee at Star Bucks! Check 'em out:

 

Radio Shack is also having their grand opening in the next few days... the new owners are pretty excited about it, too:

After our shopping trip we had to wait a while for our ride back to Lightning. Sgt. Nicholas Olsiewski (we call him "'Ski") and SFC Jared Matthews were among the soldiers waiting with us... Ski's quite the character, and didn't drop Matthews once during an unscheduled weight lifting session: 

Yikes, computer time here is limited to 30 minutes and people are waiting in line, so... until next time! Gordon will also be posting another update in the morning regarding yesterday's trip "outside the wire" to Sayyed Karem, where we were honored to have tea with the Mayor as well as some Afghan National Army soldiers. Stay tuned!